1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data, such as programming content, from a portable medium, such as a DVD or a CD, into a computer, a player or any other type of device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Due to the large size of a composition of programming content or other data, it is often necessary to load such content onto a player or other device by sequentially inputting multiple diskettes, CDs (compact discs) or DVDs (digital versatile discs or digital video discs) into the device. As used herein, programming content is intended to mean a software program for execution on a computer or content for playing on an electronic device, such as content to play an audiovisual (i.e., audio, video or combined audio and video) program. Thus, examples of programming content include: computer software for any purpose, digital motion pictures, video game programming, or any similar types of programming content.
Loading the content from each such individual medium often can require a significant amount of time. Nevertheless, in order to complete the loading in the least amount of time, the user typically is required to simply wait for the loading of each disc to finish before inputting the next one. Clearly, this conventional approach can be highly inefficient.
The present invention addresses this need by providing methods and apparatuses that cause a paging signal to be wirelessly transmitted to indicate loading status.
Thus, in one aspect the invention is directed to a technique for facilitating loading of data from a portable medium into a device. Initially, a portable medium encoded with data is accepted and the data from the portable medium is loaded into a mass storage device. A paging signal is caused to be wirelessly transmitted when a specified portion (which may be pre-specified or user-selectable) of such loading has been completed. For example, a paging signal may be transmitted when loading has completed or when a specified percentage of loading has completed.
By virtue of the foregoing arrangement, it often becomes unnecessary for an individual to wait while content from a medium is being loaded into a device. This is particularly critical where a loading operation requires loading content from multiple media. According to the present invention, an individual might install the first medium, go away, and then return to install the second medium only after receiving a page message that the first medium has completed or has almost completed loading.
In addition to the foregoing, a paging message may be sent in an event that a loading error occurs, during the playing of programming content, or in various other situations.
The foregoing summary is intended merely to provide a brief description of the general nature of the invention. A more complete understanding of the invention can be obtained by referring to the claims and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments in connection with the accompanying figures.